Denise Richards: It’s Complicated

Widely panned – yet amazingly addictive – is the reality television show Denise Richards: It's Complicated. This show appears on E! and follows the star around on her day to day activities as she cares for her children and puts a lot of energy into dispelling rumors about her defunct marriage to Charlie Sheen.

Denise Richards spent time as a relatively famous movie star, but it wasn't until her marriage problems with Charlie Sheen became common knowledge that she really started to get extensive exposure in the media. Although the public was largely on her side in the divorce, she lost favor with the public when she began dating the husband of her best friend – Heather Locklear – while Heather and Richie Sambora were separated. The media portrayed her as having stolen Richie from Heather, and she quickly became fodder for tabloid stories.

The media had largely forgotten about Denise and the situation with Charlie, Heather, and Richie when she decided to participate in her own reality show: Denise Richards: It's Complicated.

The show is similar to other reality shows following celebrities around during their day to day activities. Viewers watch Denise as she interacts with her two daughters in their home located in Calabasas, California. Denise's father also lives with the family, although he appears highly unaccustomed to the lifestyles of celebrities. This was painfully apparent during an episode when Denise insisted he receive a spray tan before an event and the cameras caught him in the shower, wearing white briefs and a shower cap, getting sprayed and looking incredibly uncomfortable.

Denise also has a wide variety of pets scampering throughout the house, making the setting for the show quite busy.

Scandal surrounded the show before it aired because claims were made that Denise was using her children for publicity purposes by allowing them to appear in the show. Charlie Sheen reportedly had huge reservations about the children appearing on camera, so Denise found herself defending her decision to allow her entire family to participate in the show. Reporters often confronted her about allowing the kids to be on the show, and her answer was either that she did not want to discuss it or that she just wanted people to get the truth about her life. As a mom, her kids are a part of her day to day life so not allowing them to appear might be unrealistic.

Charlie Sheen took Denise to court in an attempt to stop her from showing their daughters on the reality show but he didn't win the lawsuit.

The show was designed to clear Denise's name, or at least that's what it was advertised as, but all in all the show was little more than cameras following Denise around as she screamed at uncooperative reporters and went about her daily activities.

Denise deals with a wide variety of scenarios within the episodes. She confronts her mother's death in one episode and goes out on a blind date on another, so there are big differences from one episode to another.

Highlights of episodes include:

• Denise searches the Internet to find out what people are saying about her.
• She loses her temper at a tabloid reporter and storms out of the office.
• She visits a psychic for herself and for her pets.
• She goes on vacation, dances the hula, and then gets upset with the paparazzi.
• Her nephew's friends ogle photos of her in Playboy.
• She labors over the decision of whether to appear in Playboy again.

Denise may be a single mom, but she has an arsenal of personal assistants and other helpers to make her life a little easier. Viewers may have a hard time with feeling bad for Denise's life, although it isn't evident whether this is the feeling that is supposed to be elicited from watching the show.

A second season of Denise Richards' reality show was ordered for the E! entertainment channel.

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